


It's Not Even Real Football

by things_that_matter



Series: CMBYN: Life with Ollie [16]
Category: Call Me By Your Name (2017), Call Me By Your Name - All Media Types, Call Me by Your Name - André Aciman
Genre: Comfort, Discipline, Domestic Fluff, Family Feels, Family Fluff, Intimacy, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-22
Updated: 2021-01-22
Packaged: 2021-03-14 01:09:12
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,079
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28912869
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/things_that_matter/pseuds/things_that_matter
Summary: Ollie wants to sign up for flag football, but Elio isn't too sure about it.
Relationships: Oliver/Elio Perlman
Series: CMBYN: Life with Ollie [16]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2094873
Comments: 4
Kudos: 16





	It's Not Even Real Football

“I said no!” Elio realized he was being short-tempered, but he had been answering this same question for three days. Still, he dialed it back. “Ollie, can we please talk about this later?” 

“When then?!” Ollie replied, giving the back of Elio’s seat an angry little kick. 

Elio gripped the steering wheel a bit tighter, and tried to sound calm as he answered, “I don’t want to set an appointment, Ollie. Just later... okay? Later in general.” 

Ollie sighed elaborately, then turned and looked out the window, giving Elio's seat another small kick. He was soon distracted, though, watching the houses zip by in a blur. Ollie thought it was interesting that they blurred when he looked out the side window, but not when he looked out the front window. So for a while, he was quiet, experimenting by looking out all of the different windows. As the silence stretched into minutes and miles, Elio finally felt himself begin to relax. 

“But why not?” Ollie suddenly piped up again several minutes later, jarring Elio out of his road hypnosis. Elio rolled his eyes, but it went unnoticed by Ollie. “Why not?” Ollie repeated, louder. 

“Because,” Elio answered , already cringing because he knew this wasn’t a real answer, nor was his little brother the type of child to accept "because" as an answer in any circumstance. Ollie had been asking to sign up to play football for a week. Elio didn’t know how to explain to him that he was small, and young, and precious. Ollie seemed completely oblivious to the fact that he was the smallest kid in his class, and possibly in the entire second grade. 

Oliver was of no help, either. “It’s only flag football. Not tackle,” he’d offered the night before. Elio had sent a smoldering look across the table, but it was too late. 

Because now from the backseat he heard the words again in Ollie’s little voice, “It’s only flag football. Not tackle.” When Elio didn't respond, Ollie must have thought he didn't understand his words because he put the explanation into his own words, "FLAG!! That's not even real football!" 

“I said no,” Elio repeated with a false calmness to his voice. 

“You just don’t want me to have any fun,” Ollie complained. 

Elio said nothing. 

"You don't want me to have any friends," Ollie said, softly. This tugged at Elio's heart. Of course he wanted Ollie to have friends, and he'd had a terrible time making any. Even though he was very intelligent, he was less mature than some of the other kids. He had a friend next door, but they didn't play together at school. This confused and irritated both Elio and Oliver, but they couldn't make Danny play with Ollie at school. Ollie had invited a few friends over to play, or on a few occasions, spend the night, but nothing had come of it. Oliver had told Elio that he was putting too much pressure on Ollie to have friends, making a difficult situation even more difficult. But, Elio knew that Ollie wanted friends. How could he not try to help? 

And then on Monday, the letter for flag football sign-ups had come home in his folder. Elio, while he had dual citizenship, felt more Italian than American much of the time. He didn't understand the appeal American football. It looked so... injurious... 

"Why can't he just play soccer?" Elio had complained to Oliver. 

"Soccer causes injuries, too. All sports can cause injuries, but a lot of people think the benefits outweigh the risks," Oliver had replied easily. 

Elio had been silent then, but finally muttered under his breath, "Chess club then." Oliver had only smiled. He knew how protective Elio was of his brother, but he didn't share that desire to keep Ollie from all harm at the expense of depriving him of life experiences. 

Elio was jarred from his thoughts by Ollie once again blurting loudly from the backseat, "You never let me do anything!" 

Elio gripped the steering wheel even tighter and flipped up the rearview mirror up so that he could only see the top of Ollie's head, not his face, which showed a mix of anger and hurt feelings. 

"I have to sign up by TOMORROW or I can't sign up!" 

Elio flipped the mirror up a little higher so he could only see the ceiling of the car. Then he felt a big clunk to his back as Ollie kicked his seat again, but he was beginning to feel like he deserved it. 

Late that evening, after dinner was prepared, eaten, and cleaned up after, after homework was finished and video games had been played, after baths were taken and tuck ins were complete, Elio and Oliver finally laid in bed together. Elio rolled into Oliver and rested his head on Oliver's chest. Oliver held him like that for a long time. Oliver ran his hand up and down along Elio's arm in a comforting way, and he heard Elio's breathing growing deeper and more even. He felt Elio's body seem to grow heavier in his arms as he relaxed, releasing tension from the day. Oliver felt himself also loosening and growing heavy, his body growing ever closer to sleep. 

After several long moments had passed, Elio whispered, "Are you asleep?" 

"No," Oliver replied, tightening his hold on Elio as if to prove it, whether he was proving it to Elio or to himself, he wasn't quite sure. He was definitely sleepy. 

Elio ran his hand up and down along Oliver's arm. "I can't sleep," Elio complained. 

"Do you want to sleep?" Oliver asked. He really wasn't sure. 

Elio shrugged as if he hadn't really thought about it. Finally he tilted his head so that he could see Oliver's face better. To Elio, it was the most beautiful face, like something from an art museum. He decided he really didn't want to sleep after all. 

The next morning, Ollie woke up to see a paper on his night stand. He picked it up, and rubbed his sleepy eyes to try to read it. His vision was blurry from sleep, and he was still young enough that he couldn't always read all of the words on grown-up papers. But, he knew what it was without reading it because it was a bright green paper. He smiled when he saw that it was, indeed, his flag football permission slip, signed at the bottom. Elio Perlman. 


End file.
